


Historically (In)Accurate

by pillow forts (pyroooah)



Series: Cinderella and the Time-Space Dysfunction [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst and Humor, Character Development, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hokage Kagami is getting too old for her drama, Sakura is a cheeky brat, Snapshots, Third Hokage Uchiha Kagami, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25457929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroooah/pseuds/pillow%20forts
Summary: Sakura time-travels, makes changes, makes other minor changes, and ends up in places she’d only read about in history textbooks. She also gains a good friend through the years.An accompaniment to Secret but can be read as a stand-alone.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Kagami
Series: Cinderella and the Time-Space Dysfunction [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843897
Comments: 4
Kudos: 94





	Historically (In)Accurate

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to expand on Secret, and here's what I got lol. I might have my history completely inaccurate, but heh, we'll blame it on the butterfly effect. I just wanted to write snapshots of Hokage Kagami. This is my first time actually writing anyone from the Warring States etc. I usually stick to Team Minato era.
> 
> This fandom grandma also struggled with AO3, and I was confusing a collection for a series, you know? I also self-beta'ed this and hemmed and hawed over it before finally giving in and posting it. Chances are, there are mistakes, and this is now my life lool
> 
> In any case, enjoy!

When Mio Uchiha said hello to him, Kagami couldn’t meet her eyes as he looked down at his feet—the back of his neck was red, and Sakura found that hilarious. He shoved his elbow into her rib-cage not-so-subtly, but Mio wasn’t a seasoned fighter. She didn’t notice it. 

“If you like her so much, why don’t you tell her?” Sakura asked him. “You’re Uchiha. She’s Uchiha. You both would have Uchiha babies. Your clan would be happy. It's not like you're marrying a Senju or a Hyuuga or something." 

Kagami sighed at her. 

“It’s not that simple,” Kagami replied. “She’ll never look at me like that. She probably likes someone who's smarter, or stronger, or someone like one of the other boys in the clan.” 

She smacked the back of his neck.

“Hey!” he snapped. 

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Okay, listen up. You ain’t going to get anything in life by doing nothing. You gotta reach for it and _grasp_ the opportunity, you hear me? So if you like that girl, you gotta _make_ sure you at least _try_ and tell her.” 

Kagami glanced ahead at the sea of people who were just walking by, and Mio’s figure was escaping through the crowds. He reached out his hand towards her, and he clenched it. He looked determined. 

“If not, I’ll tell Mio myself.” 

He looked at her in horror. 

“NO.” 

She grinned at him, with mischievous eyes, and she stood up. “Should I? Hey MI—” He slapped his hand over her mouth. 

“Sakura— _no!”_ He yanked her back down to the grass as she started laughing. “You’re horrible. _Horrible._ ”

She just answered him with a laugh.

After a moment of lying on the grass, and watching the skies, Sakura began to sing: “Kagami and Mio, sitting on a tree.” He turned to her in horror. “K-I-S-S-I—”

“Enough!” He covered his ears, and he grew redder.

“Has anyone told you how much fun you are to tease?”

“You’re—you are so _crude!”_ He got up and promptly started to walk away. She laughed at him. “Have a good day.” 

“Was that the best you could come up with?” Still such a gentleman, she chuckled. They really don’t make boys like Kagami in the future. 

“I have better things to do!”

“Like telling the girl you—” 

He increased his pace and stuck his fingers in his ears, and she giggled to herself merrily.

And Sakura gazed at the rising village of Konohagakure—unrecognizable from what she remembered from her war-torn future. She let the breeze ripple through her hair, and she watched as young children accompanied by their parents, walked down the streets. The Hokage mountain, and Hashirama and Tobirama’s faces were carved into them. She wiggled off her sandals and let her toes wiggle in the breeze. 

She felt a presence linger behind her. He was soundless, and she wouldn’t have known he was there, until she heard the sound of grass under his feet. 

“Nidaime-sama?" she addressed him. 

He eyed the village beside her, and he folded his arms. The breeze rippled through their hair on that grassy hill. 

“It’s been two months,” he said. “But the last time, you spent barely a week, you said.” 

She frowned. “Yeah. Right smack in the middle of your battle with Uchiha Izuna.” 

His eyes trekked over the Uchiha clan. “So, they continue to be a problem some generations down?” 

“Well,” she said. “Considering the fact that the Senju and the Uchiha have been at war, and Konoha has had _two_ Senju Hokage, I suppose the anxiety prevails well into the future.”

“You speak troubling things of the future,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to pick a Hokage candidate.”

“Oh?”

“But the things you say… they have me reconsidering my options.”

Sakura hadn’t told him too much, and she’d kept pretty mum about most things, and she'd told him the more important things. They both caught sight of a large figure exiting the Uchiha clan compounds, and he ambled through the streets, as people greeted him. Large, shaggy hair, and a frown on his face as he scratched the back of his neck. He had enough paperwork due to being on the council, hadn’t he?

“Who better to understand the Uchiha problem than an Uchiha?” he muttered. 

And right on cue, Madara Uchiha turned in their direction, and he eyed the pair of them. Feeling uncomfortable, Sakura averted her eyes to the clouds. She was pretty sure the man could read her mouth. 

“Are you considering Uchiha clan head?” she asked slowly. She felt the hairs raise up at the back of her neck as she said it. “Or his brother?” 

The cloud was looking mighty appealing.

"Have you seen _either_ brother in a meeting? They get bored and impatient, while I like to hammer out the details." 

"You're a bit of a nerdy paper-ninja, ain't you, Nidaime-sama?" she asked him with a grin. "I was a bit of a nerdy paper-ninja too, y'know. You were my favorite Hokage." 

He gave her a side eye, before he huffed with amusement. "Cheeky brat. If I was truly your favourite Hokage, you would have known that certain jutsu were forbidden." 

"I might have missed that part." 

He then rolled his eyes before continuing. 

“Uchiha Madara is a good shinobi, and excellent commander of the shinobi force, but he would make a terrible Hokage. We need people to liaison, talk, treatise and work with people. Negotiate peace deals. Our generation—apart from Hashirama—didn’t quite understand negotiation using words. He’s turned down the position before too.”

“An Uchiha,” she repeated. 

“Regarding the Zetsu problem—”

“Please leave it to me.” 

He eyed her, and Sakura looked up as Madara stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned. In the past two months, since she’d been here, she’d barely spoken one sentence to him and those were— “Is the Nidaime in his office?” She'd been shivering when he turned an eye to her, and he appraised her before responding. One of the perks of being a village founder meant that you didn't have to be respectable to the Hokage, and you could walk in whenever you please. 

He scoffed. “You’ll need training. Your kenjutsu is atrocious. What are they teaching future generations?”

She glowered at him. 

“ _You_ started the academy, you know, Lord Hokage?"

“I don’t _run_ it some fifty years into the future," he retorted. 

* * *

Tobirama had forbade her to leave the squad she was in, telling her that if she were to pursue Zetsu in the middle of the first shinobi war , she might as well surrender her Konoha headband. Sakura felt antsy. She needed to find Zetsu. 

During a reprieve, Kagami fell in line with her.

Kagami was the sort of person who weaved himself into her life because of Tobirama. Tobirama was irritated by her lack of ability with kenjutsu—so he asked Kagami to give her a few lessons. It’s how they became friends. 

“Nidaime-sama,” he muttered, and he looked glassy-eyed. “Sensei asked me if I wanted to become Hokage,” he muttered. “The offer was open to me.”

“WHAT?” 

He smacked his hand over her mouth. 

“You’re so loud!” he hissed.

He released his hand from her mouth, and she beamed at him. He sighed, and then he ran his hand through his hair. 

“I mean… I’m going to be the worst Hokage in the history of Hokages.” He sounded like a puppy, and it was very grating to Sakura. “There’s no way I can measure up to Madara-sama or Izuna-sama.” 

“What do any of them have to do with it?”

“Or even Hiruzen,” he muttered. “Hiruzen has charisma. He can make friends easily. He’s good at making allies. I’m—” 

“My goodness,” she muttered. “Shut your mouth for a second or two. All your self-deprecating yammering is giving me a headache.” 

He looked incredulously at her, jaw hanging open, and blinking rapidly. 

“Why are you always so—”

“You’re a wuss?” she offered. Kagami’s eyes flashed with irritation. Before he could make off, she grabbed his arm, and she yanked him back. “I’m sorry, Kagami. I’ve always been a little rude, you realize. But I’m saying this for your own good.” 

He eyed her for sincerity.

“That’s a very serious decision to make.” 

Sakura looked at him, and she really looked at him and evaluated Tobirama’s choice of a Hokage, because what she was about to say—she reasoned—could make or break history.

“If Nidaime-sama were to fall in this war, would you be able to lead Konoha?” she asked him.

He stared at her. 

“Leaders are not born, they are made in times of crisis. Clearly, either our esteemed Hokage has finally cracked, or he decided that you’re worth the shot, kid.” 

He stared at her, and his nose twitched at the word, ‘kid.’ She steered him to look at the camp. 

“Look around you,” she said. “Look at the battle. Look at the people. If you are Hokage, it doesn’t matter who is more charismatic, but that these people see another morning. You call the shots. You sign things. People are trusting you— _not_ someone who can make friends and who is better at battle. Think of the people. _Not yourself._ ” 

Naruto had learned that, she thought. Eight Hokage—Uzumaki Naruto—who was inaugurated during the cold war, hours after Hatake Kakashi fell in the fourth great war of the shinobi alliance due to Zetsu’s infiltration into the force. 

He looked seriously at her, and she saw a spark in his eye that made her smile. 

“Sakura-san!” she heard one of the medics from the camp call out. “Please come quickly!”

Stepping past him, she fell in line with the medics, and Kagami glanced at her back and then at the ground. He ground his hands into fists, and his sharingan blazed. He was feeling sick of himself. 

“What are you thinking about so intensely, boy?” He looked up at Madara, who emerged from the forested path. Madara folded his arms, and he eyed him. 

“Ah.” He loosened up. “Nothing, Madara-sama.” 

Madara simply eyed him for a good second, before heading back to the camp. 

“She’s right, you know?” he said casually. 

Kagami blinked. 

* * *

“Sakura,” Tobirama muttered in pain. “Bring that woman to me.” 

“GET SAKURA,” Kagami bellowed at the shinobi, while Tobirama was lying against the tree, his face was steadily getting paler. “GET HER NOW!” There was so much blood. He _couldn't_ let his sensei die like this. 

“Nidaime-sama…” Danzo said with a frown. Hiruzen widened his eyes with fear, and Koharu and 

His sharingan was spinning madly. 

“We can’t find her!’ the medic said frantically. “She’s gone MIA.” 

Tobirama opened an eye, and he looked up at the stars. Madara hopped down towards the platoon. 

“Senju,” he muttered. Tobirama breaths were slowing. “It’s not like she can perform something life-changing right now though.” 

“That brat probably could,” Tobirama muttered. “What a rotten time to go MIA. I did tell her to stay put, but the brat never listens.”

Kagami—who’d had enough of this—stood up to go find Sakura and drag her here, and make her do whatever Tobirama claimed she could do.

“Kagami, stay,” Madara growled. “Senju, it’s now or never. You know what you have to do.” 

Kagami turned to face him, and Tobirama glanced at him tiredly.

“I choose Kagami as my successor to be Hokage.” 

His peers, Hiruzen, Danzo, Koharu—they all glanced at him. 

“Will you accept and lead Konoha?” 

Something burned inside him, and he glanced at his comrades, who all widened their eyes at him. 

He steeled his resolve, as he remembered Sakura’s burning eyes. “Yes.” 

* * *

After he signed the armistice treaty, Konoha shinobi returned home. Konoha was worn out by war, and Kagami was faced with endless meetings. One of them is with the head of his clan. Madara—just about as intimidating as he was in his youth—eyed him from across the room. 

“I’m sorry about Izuna-sama’s death.”

Madara nodded. 

“Izuna was healed after Tobirama nearly killed him,” he said then. “He doesn’t have much memory of it as he was mostly on death’s door, but I had my men investigate at the time. They got into battle with some strange kunoichi. Fools had no sense, and apparently they said she could make craters in the earth.”

_Kagami you idiot! TAKE THIS!_

He glanced up at Madara.

“I see,” Kagami said. They were supposed to be talking about clan policies and the Uchiha Police force. But sometimes, as he’d been told, Madara Uchiha often got sentimental or kooky, and you just had to indulge him at that point. 

And he remembered, briefly, as he flickered through the pages of the file that Sakura too could make craters with her fists, and he remembered being terrified out of his wits. 

_Don’t underestimate women, CHA!_

He was confused, and he looked up at Madara again, who was watching him, as if he knew the thoughts swirling in his head. 

“There was a weird rumor going around the clan that your sparring partner was her,” he said. “One of them swore that she _hadn’t_ aged a day since. But I’m sure it’s all gibberish, don’t you think?” 

“It couldn’t have been her.” 

Madara just looked at him with his sleepy-eyed look, and he quirked an eyebrow. Kagami was faintly reminded of when he was a boy, and he used to squirm underneath the clan-head's gaze. 

“Either ways,” Madara began, annoyed or bored—he couldn’t tell, because the man was an enigma. “Are we done yet?” 

“Not yet, Madara-sama,” Kagami said. He pulled out the files. 

* * *

She hadn’t gone missing during the First Shinobi war. Not really. There was an attack on the medical camps. Sakura being Sakura, totally disobeyed Tobirama’s direct order (What did he expect? She was part of Team 7) and she went to investigate. 

She got jumped by a platoon. 

She been fighting a shinobi—who had been cloaked with Black Zetsu—and at some point, he had made the jump to coat her. Sakura felt that loose feeling, as if the earth beneath her feet spun, and she was falling through time.

Black Zetsu—she noted as she kept falling through the thousand foot drop—was screaming as he was being yanked off her in the time-space portal. Lost in the passageway forever.

She hit the ground and lost consciousness. She heard screams around her as she faded to black. 

* * *

When she came to, she first diagnosed herself with a concussion and a few broken bones. She saw a familiar pair of grim black eyes, and they were shadowed by a Hokage’s cap. Kagami looked at her. He had a funny look on his face as she recognized him. He didn’t look twenty-two any more. He looked far older. 

Thirty? Give or take. So, she thought. It had almost been a decade. 

“So,” she said with a quirked smile. “You became Hokage.” 

“Explain,” he said, not smiling. 

“Time-travel.” 

He stared at her. 

“A time-space jutsu that can teleport me through different points in time,” she said tiredly. “A time-space jutsu gone wrong.”

“What?” 

“I’m from the future,” she replied. “I’m from a war-torn future, where Konoha was losing, and our future Hokage thought the best idea would be to send me back to uhhh… solve some problems.” 

He had a kunai drawn against her neck.

“You believe me,” she said. Years of being a hardened shinobi made Kagami more self-assured, she thought wryly. “But at the same time, _you_ don’t.” 

He drew himself to full height, and she’d only ever seen the Sandaime and Kakashi wear the Hokage robes. It looked good on him. 

“I don’t know. I’ll need a Yamanaka.” 

“You can probably just check the Nidaime-sama’s archive,” she said. “He tends to keep a record of these things, you know? He's a bit of a paper ninja.” 

He sighed as he stood up. 

She quirked another smile at him. 

“Did you marry Mio?” 

* * *

Three weeks passed, and he made her go through those checks, under the confidence of a Yamanaka, who looked visibly uncomfortable. Tobirama did leave things... about her. She was a secret in Tobirama's journal, and she was now officially an S-Ranked secret by Kagami. Only future Hokages would be privy to her existence until her time-travel shenanigans ended.

The Yamanaka erased his own memory, but not before telling her that he was glad his great grand daughter was well. 

One morning, she snuck into his office, because his ANBU weren't as good as they would become in the future. He tensed, but when he realized it was her, he calmed down. 

“You used to be so much more fun, you know?”

“Endless paperwork and clan arguments does that to you,” Kagami replied. He leaned on his palm. He was signing papers—skimming over the words. It irked her, and reminded her of Tsunade’s negligent ways. He pointed the fountain pen at her. "If you're bored, I could give you a D-rank or something." 

"We don't know when I'll just be gone. Poof. Like you wanted to see." 

"Oh, that's right." 

“Yup.” She tiptoed over and attempted to read the paper. 

He tilted it away from her. “Confidential.” She averted her eyes. 

"What's the Uchiha clan like these days?" 

"Madara-sama is still head. Crankier these days." 

She shivered at the sound of that, and he eyed her, and he put his fountain pen down. 

"Was he... part of the clan in your timeline as well?" 

Sakura looked away in silence, and the smile faded from her lips, and he frowned. She hoped he'd not ask her that. 

“Why couldn’t you be there when sensei… Sensei believed you could heal him, but you weren’t—” 

She turned to look at him. 

“Ah, I’m sorry.” 

He leant back in the chair and said nothing, but she could tell that there was a shadow in his eyes—or perhaps it was the way that the Hokage’s office chair was perched against the sunlight. He looked so much older. 

“Want to spar?"

He quirked a smile at that. "Your kenjutsu could still use some work. Give me fifteen.” 

"Kayy." 

“Hey,” he said. “Did you know that sensei would die in the war?” 

She looked at him and said nothing. 

“You did,” he affirmed bitterly. 

“I don’t know everything,” she said. “Who lives, who dies, what happens, and when I’m about to be violently hurled from this moment to the next. All I have is right now.” 

“Do you know what I should do next?” 

“Where is Danzo?” 

He frowned at her. 

“Keep an eye on him,” she said. 

Just then a little boy by the age of four years old, came sauntering in. “Father!” he said, and Kagami picked up the four year old, and Sakura felt it happen again. 

“Hell,” she muttered. He reached out for her. She flickered out.

Four year old Akio Uchiha glanced in her direction.

“Father,” Akio turned to his father, who was staring at the spot with wide eyes, and his sharingan spun madly. “Where did that lady go?”

* * *

Sakura wondered if she ought to carry a backpack around with her at all times, and she firmly decided that that was exactly what she was going to do. The hill where she used to sit and watch the comings and goings of the village had been broken down to include more houses, and she was on someone’s building rooftop. There were celebrations on the streets, and she could only assume it was the end of the Second Shinobi war. 

There were still three heads on Hokage Mountain. She’d been away for _ten_ years. 

She headed to the streets in a henge. Today, she decided, she wanted to look like one of those gorgeous girls who spent a lot of time with their hair, like Mizukage Terumi Mei, she thought. 

It was a bad idea, because as she was sitting at some restaurant—minding her business, she might add, and catching up with the times, when someone strode in—drunk and started to woo her. 

She probably sent someone’s grandfather flying through the crowds, and decided she’d better be discreet. 

As she walked through Konoha, Sakura made out places and things she remembered from sunnier days. The Uchiha Clan’s flags still are up high, and she passes into the cemetery—because no one would be at the cemetery during a celebration at the end of the war, right? But the end of war has different faces. Some rejoice, others mourn. 

But what the hell does she know? She never lived to see the end of her own. 

She sees Lady Tsunade standing there in front of a grave at the cemetery. Lady Tsunade looks down at the stone, and she looked so tired for a twenty plus year old woman. She hears someone call out to her. 

“Neechan!” 

Sakura and Tsunade glance over their shoulder as they see Nawaki running up to them. 

“Neechan!” 

In this life, Sakura realizes that Nawaki lives. He didn’t step on a bomb. Maybe there were many reactions to one explosion. Maybe. She glanced back at Senju Tobirama’s grave.

“You told me I was an idiot,” she said. “And you yelled at me a fair bit, and complimented me that you’d never met a bigger idiot.” She grinned. “I mean, you weren’t wrong. I feel like I can’t stop much, but maybe change a lil bit here and there.” 

She then headed down, and her eyes passed over the name on the grave ‘Dan Kato.’ 

“I hope they at least implemented medical ninja on each squad during the war this time,” she muttered. 

And Sakura sat on the tallest rooftop, watching the crowds gather as the Hokage, his wife, Mio Uchiha, and their child addressed the crowds, and he thanked them for their service during the war. Tsunade, Jiraiya and Orochimaru were commended for their efforts during the war. Hiruzen Sarutobi looked proud. 

She felt herself tear up. 

Nawaki’s loud voice could be heard amidst the crowds, and Sakura smiled to herself. 

“I wonder if he’ll be Hokage,” she thought. There was a thought that occurred to her. Zetsu—he was lost in the confines of time, and Uchiha Madara—now older—would not be a problem. But there were other problems on the horizon, she thought, as she glanced at Danzo. 

If the Uchiha problem is solved, Tobirama asked her. What else do you think is a problem? 

Danzo’s eyes darkened as he looked at Kagami, too bright on the platform, and Sakura watched him. Truly, she thought, she could not solve the world’s problems. Amidst the cheers, and as the crowd started to disperse, Kagami’s son turned to say something to them. Kagami laughed. 

She didn’t know how he saw her over the crowds, but she was on the rooftop, sitting there swinging her legs. She tilted her head at him.

He widened his eyes. 

She raised her hand in half a greeting. She felt the tug and the pull again. She gave him a bittersweet smile, as she flickered out before the others could glance her way. 

* * *

She showed up two years later. 

“Is there a way to stop it?” he asked her. 

“Not that I know of,” she said. “I’ve never lived long enough in these moments of time to actually research. Nidaime-sama lectured and grumbled at me for an entire day and a half and suggested that our time-travel jutsu is malfunctioning, and then told me that I was a bigger idiot. Well, he just _left_ forbidden jutsu around. What did he expect?” 

Kagami smiled at the thought of his old teacher. “Did you tell him that too?” 

“Yes."

“I’m sure he must not have been very happy with the lip you were giving him.” 

She huffed. He had _not_ been very happy. 

“Danzo,” she said. “I told you to be careful of Danzo.” 

“Yeah,” he said. “I couldn’t quite figure out why. Especially since you continue to be so cryptic about his role. He's integral to the village. He's integral to ROOT." 

“You’re just an obstacle in the way of becoming a Hokage,” she began. “But you have something invaluable. Something he could use to his advantage.”

Kagami frowned at her.

“Sharingan. If not you, then your family,” she thought. She put a hand on her temple. The thought then occurred to her as she looked at his glasses: “Are you growing blind due to your sharingan?”

“No.” he said. “Maybe because of paperwork. I generally don’t use my sharingan unless necessary.” 

“Which is like never these days? Have you gotten rusty?” She wagged an eyebrow at him. "I could beat you at kenjutsu." 

"You wish." He snorted. “The Hokage has guards for a reason, you know?” 

He picked up one of his papers, and he started to sign it. These days, he was a lot more cautious to actually read his paper-work, she noticed. He glanced up at her.

"Are you _ever_ going to tell me about your timeline?" 

“I’ve been holding back for a reason,” she said then. “Because I truly believed that you might make some impulsive move. But ah..." 

He glanced down at his paperwork, as she worked through her internal conflict. Did it truly matter at this point? So many things had changed. 

"Nothing I say about the _alternate_ timeline leaves this room.” 

He sighed. “Are you giving _me_ orders, Sakura?” He pulled down the blinds. “Go on.” 

The whole account took nearly forty minutes—interrupted with questions, because Kagami was curious. By the end of it, he looked sick. His paperwork was abandoned. He had his head in his hands. She didn't give him names of her timeline's Hokages or the other Kages, no matter how much he tried to pry them off her. 

“I need a moment,” he said. 

“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t think I have much more time.”

She felt it again.

He glanced up at her. She felt the strange pull again. She was falling again through that 1000 foot drop, and she landed on the grass in front of Konoha’s front gates. Sakura rested her head for a moment against the tree, before she froze. A genin team, sweaty from their travels back home, led by Jiraiya. She briefly made out the figure of Namikaze Minato—aka her fourth Hokage. 

“Well,” Jiraiya said. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” 

A wave of nausea hit her, and she threw up in response.

* * *

“Welcome back team Jiraiya,” Kagami said. He smiled at them beautifically. Sakura simply ambled over to the coffee table—a new addition, she thought—and she poured herself a glass of water and she began to chug as if she’d never drunk water in her life. Team Jiraiya and their genin glanced at her. “Good job on successfully completing your mission.”

“I needed that,” Sakura muttered. She took a seat on the couch and laid her head back. 

“Did you encounter any difficulties?

“A few Hokage-sama, ” baby Yondaime said. Sakura cracked an eye open to watch baby Yondaime give a detailed report. Kagami nodded, and they forgot about Sakura in the background, until baby Yondaime turned to leave. He eyed Sakura, and Sakura glanced at him. 

She’d heard from Tsunade that Naruto’s dad was naturally curious about everything. But he was the sharpest shinobi of his generation. A civilian, she’d heard. One parent was a nondescript shinobi. He was like her. One of the sources of inspiration was in front of her, in a mini-form. 

He glanced back at her occasionally. 

“Um, excuse me,” he asked then as his teammates were about to leave the room. “Do you possess the same seal as Tsunade-sama?” 

She cracked an eye to look at him. Jiraiya eyed her. Kagami eyed Jiraiya.

“Umm…Dunno what you’re talking about, kid.”

Feeling mighty affronted, baby Yondaime pressed on. “You do, don’t you? I'm not a kid. I'm a genin." 

“Minato-kun,” Kagami began in a tense voice, and he smiled. “Do you mind giving me and Jiraiya a moment alone with our stranger?”

Minato closed the door behind him, but not as he gave her one last stare. Sakura’s lip twitched, and she turned to her Hokage and an expectant Jiraiya.

“I’d skip the pleasantries,” she told Jiraiya. “Since, you’re not going to buy my lies, and I think you’re a bit smarter than that. I’m a time-traveller.” 

Jiraiya looked at her and then at the Hokage—as if to inquire about her mental state. 

“I’m from at least—thirty years? How old is baby Yondaime…?” Both men stiffened. She waved her hand around in front of her nose. “No that doesn’t make sense. Oh, I guess baby Kakashi is around somewhere.” 

“Then the seal—” Jiraiya said. His eyes flickered to his forehead. 

“Ah,” she said. “I’m the student of Tsunade Senju.” 

“Tsunade, huh?” Jiraiya grinned at her. “Have you inherited her infamous temper as well?”

“Why don’t you try me?” she bit back with a raised eyebrow. 

“I’d rather not,” Kagami told him. “Let’s keep my office intact. In any case, Jiraiya, Sakura has a problem. She’s stuck in the timeline for an undetermined amount of time.”

* * *

This time, Sakura thought, as she entered the Hokage’s Mansion—into a guest room reserved for her—she was going to prepare a pack of supplies and maybe some weapons, and she was going to carry them around everywhere.. She ended up being followed by a baby Yondaime, and Sakura let him follow her out of sheer amusement. 

As she was eying the mountain of apples, she bumped into someone, and she bowed, tucking the hair behind her ear. She shifted the heavy pack over her shoulder to see him better. 

“I’m so sorry,” she heard. She looked up at a man with white hair who looked at her—and there was an odd crinkle of his eyes that reminded her of Kakashi. 

She made out Kakashi in his arms. She smiled at him—feeling a wave of emotions take over her. So that’s what he looks like without a mask, and they did bury him with his mask. The pouty baby gave her an odd look before turning his face. 

“It’s no problem.” 

A few drops fell from the sky, and Hatake Sakumo looked up.

“Ah,” he said. “It’s starting to rain.” He looked at her and widened his eyes. “Miss… you’re disappearing.” 

She gave him and the boy one last smile as she dropped. Sakura closed her eyes as she fell through the 1000 foot drop, hovering over the surface, and she thought of Kakashi-sensei in the distant future. 

* * *

It was night time, and the stars glittered over the village. Sakura glanced at the Hokage mountain, blearily registering the three faces. She made her way through the forested area, and tracked him down. He was looking down at the grave, dressed in his Hokage robes with a bundle in his arms. Kagami looked much older these days with wrinkles. He’s fifty, she reminded herself, and she sighed as she walked over to him. He’s fifty-something and tired of endless wars.

He knew she was there, of course. He’d been waiting for her to approach him, because he hasn't called his ANBU to his side. 

She stopped in front of the grave, and her heart flew into her mouth. 

_‘UCHIHA AKIO.’_

“I’m so sorry,” she told him. He shook his head as he held the baby in one arm, and in the other he had covered his eyes and wet cheeks. “I’m so sorry.” 

Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he said nothing as she stood there. She put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. 

“How?”

“The battlefield,” he replied. “The Third Shinobi war.” Ah, she thought. The ten year war, and from the looks of it, she is in the early stages of it.

She glanced at the child. 

“My grandson,” he said. “Shisui. Do you want to hold him?” 

“Sure,” she said. And she looked down at the baby. The baby was barely six months old. He glanced at her. “Akio didn’t make it,” he said. “He didn’t get to see his son.”

The baby yanked her hair, and she winced as she tried to untangle his fingers with a frown at the baby, and the child refused to let go of the lock of hair, much to her dismay.

“Bad,” she told the baby. "No pulling. Pulling bad." 

“He has a pretty good grip,” Kagami commented with a smile. “Doesn’t he? He’s going to be a fine shinobi, won’t he?” 

She nodded at him. "Like his Grandpa," she cooed at the baby. 

When the Hokage cried, he covered his face with his hat, and Sakura looked down at the baby—who was gurgling at her and still holding her hair. She didn’t know anything about Shisui Uchiha, apart from the fact that he was an Uchiha, related to Sasuke in some manner, he was dead and he was Konoha’s flee-on-sight shinobi. There were other details regarding his eyes and the fact that he was part of the Itachi’s war-plan of sorts, but she'd sort of glossed over the rest. She didn't know most things, because Naruto was terrible at retellings. 

She decided to just let the baby yank her hair, occasionally pulling it out of his grasp when he tried to gnaw it and stop thinking. 

“Akio,” he said to the grave. “Akio. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when your friend died. I’m sorry I hadn’t tried harder to mend things with you. But I want to _promise you_ that Shisui will live better. He will laugh. He will smile more.” 

She turned away from his sobs to give him a moment. Shisui had at some point fallen asleep with a bit of a medical ninjutsu trick. 

She looked down at the grave beside Akio’s, and she made out the words Uchiha Mio, and she felt heavier. The woman was a lovely woman in her youth with a lovely smile, and it was terribly sad. 

“Do I live longer than I did in your timeline, Sakura?” 

“As far as I remember, I don’t remember Uchiha Kagami, but I remember Sandaim—Sarutobi-san, Danzou, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado. You might have been part of Team Tobirama—and you might have died early. You might have been murdered.” 

He smiled at her minor slip up. "Hiruzen _does_ become Hokage." 

"Ah, yes." 

"He would have been a fine Hokage." 

"I suppose he was. He was the longest serving Hokage in history. When the Fourth and his wife died, he took up the post." 

"I'm sure. He loves the village too much to abandon it." 

They lapsed into silence, and Sakura shifted Shisui so he was more comfortable. 

“Danzo’s dead.” 

Sakura flickered her eyes to him. 

“You were right,” he said. “He attempted to assassinate me, and Mio got in the way. I ordered the disbandment of ROOT and his execution. You were right to be wary of him. ROOT…” he sighed. 

“I’m so sorry it had to end up this way. I truly am.” 

He shook his head with a bitter, pathetic smile as his sharingan blazed. “Power truly corrupts a man. Even people you considered dear friends.” It was the mangekyo sharingan, she realized. 

She didn’t say anything to that. She was sure that it was ‘the _pursuit_ of power’ that corrupted Danzo not power in and of itself. 

“We can’t control everything, Sakura. That’s what being a Hokage has taught me.”

"People will always fight." 

He nodded. 

"My friend, you know, Naruto Uzumaki? He became Hokage, and I'd surpassed the previous Hokage in power, and we _still_ couldn't stop our friends and family from dying and falling prey to the chaos," she said.

She thought of Naruto holding her and crying into her shoulder with broken sobs, and swearing that he wanted to change it all if he could. He ran like a madman to save her from a killing blow, and screamed. She remembered his mad proclamation as he stormed towards her, and he told her that this could change everything.

"But you stopped Danzo from going down a darker path. I suppose that counts for something." 

He just looked intently at her. She remembered a minor but important detail of Naruto's account of the massacre, which was difficult to parse, because he'd rushed it, and the village never kept records. 

"But Shisui will have a brighter future," she said towards the baby. "I believe." 

Her implications didn't go unsaid, and he averted his darkened eyes.

"I hope so too." 


End file.
